A lecture to young men and women, delivered in the Union Church on the graning of Sunday, the 27th of September, 1896, by the Rev. John Stevens, D.D., D. Lit.
"What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that Thou visitest him?" rsazar 8, 4, The principal lines of Bible teaching as to man are here, so to speak, brought to a focus; those lines of teaching which, when ther we regard them as simply the outcome of man's reflections upon hi elf, or attribute their origin to divine inspiration, are suggestive as to invite and almost demand earnest and careful consideration. Itcan never be unimportant or of little importance for us to try and learn what we are. In our more serious moods and moments, moments and moods which come to all sooner or later, such questions as, "What am I? Whence am I? Whither am I going?" thrust themselves upon us, and cause us to chafe and fret unless we can find a reply which will soothe, if not satis fy, the intellect, the.heart, and the conscience. Much depends upon our thought of ourselves, of our relation to the universe and of our destiny. It affects, and powerfully affects, our character, our conduct and our inward feeling. There is perhaps nothing surer than this, that what a man conceives himself to be, that he will tend to become, After making all due allowance for the influence of inherited tastes and dispositions, of the bias of early training, and of surroundings, it is certain that our beliefs and convictions as to what we are, play a large part in fixing the direction, the set, of our life-course.
And here I may take opportunity to remark a fact which is, I think, not without impressiveness. The Bible does not enter upon any metaphysical argument or psychological discussion of the question before u: Tt does not merely supply us with suggestions and hints as to where and how we may hope to obtain light upon it. It does not entangle and perplex us with me: speculations. However we may explain it, it is beyond all controversy that this book speaks to us on this great theme, as it does also upon others, with the calmness, the clearness and directness, which betoken a full knowledge of it.' Perhaps I may anticipate an objection if I say at once, that I am far from holding that positivenesss of statement is in itself a Hhere are all too many examples of dog-arent either of wisdom or authority.
matism wedded to ignorance to make such 'a position tenable for a moment. But what if that which is spoken prove as sublime, as reasonable and fitting, as the tone in which it is delivered is confident Must we not then acknowledge that it is deserving of serious attention, if not of grateful acceptance, at the hands of thoughtful men? Such is indeed the case with what the Bible teaches concerning man. It is true to facts so far as they come within the range of observation; and as for the rest, if we only will be at the pains to look into it, we shall be ready to exclaim again and again: If this is not true it ought to be!"
Keeping as near as we can to the track of the thought of the writer of this Psalm, are, in the first place, brought into view of man's feebleness and insignificance. When I consider Thy heavens," he says, "the work of Thy fingers, The moon and stars which Thou hast ordained; What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that Thou visitest him?"
There are probably few of us who have not at some time or other felt the pressure of this great interrogation. How infinitely little we are as a race, how utterly dwarfed and well-nigh extinguished we seem to be as individuals, in the presence of the seventy-five millions of worlds which are said to be known to the astronomer, and which are only, in all probability, but as the outer fringe of the "garment of God." If the Psalmist with his outlook upon the marshalled hosts of the heavens felt that human-kind was humbled into the dust before their numbers and their glory, how much more must we feel that humbling, who have learned th: the earth is not the central world to which all others are attendants and servants, but is one of the very least of worlds?' This world which is our habitation is only as.a point in space, and we, we are only as so many specks upon it.' It is said that an English scientist and philosopher turned one night from the contemplation of the "shining train" of the skies, and quietly remarked, "I don't think much of our county families after that and assuredly, all our pride and boasting, all our conceit and lofty self-opinions, wither and perish in the blaze of the splendour of the expanse about us. In our days not only astronomy, but other sciences lend their testimony to our inconsiderableness. The book of the rocks has been unsealed and its hieroglyphies deciphered, and we learn therefrom that man, a speck space as astronomy makes him out to be, is only the occupant as of a moment in time. And then biology has uttered its voice, and teaches, if we accept the hypothesis which now holds the ground, that man is the resultant of almost innumerable phases in the ever-flowing stream: of life. How we are belittled, thrust, if I may butit so, into an obscure corner, humbled into nothingness, before the magnitude, the age-long continuance, the mighty changes of that system of things amidst which we find ourselves. Does it not appear, as we survey this side of our subject, to be the very topmost height of folly and presumption to believe that the Creator and Ordainer of worlds and suns, which are as the sand on the sea-shore for multitude, either thinks upon us or cares anything for us? Since the annihilation of the globe iteolf would bear about the same relation to the universe that the dropping of a single leaf does to the forest, is the life of man of greater moment to the Creator than the life of the meanest insect, is to man himself? What can we do, save bow our heads before the stupendous facto of the material order as unfolded and interpreted by science, and say:
"How vain at best is dying man, How all his hopes and fears Vain his ambition, noise and she Vain are the cares which rack hi ind, He heaps up treasures, mixed with woe, And dies."
If there were nothing more to be said, if the Psalm left us with the garlands of faith and hope withered and turned to dust in our hands, then it were almost better that we had never come to be; then would the question, Is life worth living present itself with urgency and force. But the point of view is suddenly changed, and we see a have—what amounts to a ffory. Thou art mindful of him."
afirmation of man's tues and
Thou visitest him..... Thou hast made him a little lower than God. And crownest him with glory and honour."
Insignificant and weak as man is when compared with the astonishingly great and ud creation amidst which he stands, he as qualities, powers, and privileges which it has not and which give him rank above ital. His spiritual affinities, his moral nature, his intellectual capacity, distin-guise him above all that belongs to the material and visible. All men hunger for the gods," said the Greek philosopher. "*My soul thirsteth for God," cried the Hebrew psalmist. "'O God, Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our souls are restless until we find rest in Thee," exclaimed Augustine. And the same yearning has expression in all the temples, altars, and forms of worship, that man has erected in glory land under the sun, heavens above than is the moral "ley jot more wonderful ai
within.
The universe, vast and wonderful as it is, has no meaning apart from mind. Mind interprets the universe and is greater than that which it interprets, And here comes in the truth of which the Psalmist sung, and which may well awaken the song of gladness and praise in us, that God- thinks upon man, thinks upon him as He thinks upon no other part of His creation, and that God visits man. Visits man, to adopt here what is elsewhere suggested, by means of affliction and sorrow, that He may save him from seeking his portion in this present world; and visits him in the bestowal of daily mercies to cause him to recognise His nearness and His love. But these visitations of God, fraught though they are with blessing for those who recog-nisse Him in them, may for the time be forgotten as we think upon the truth announced in the song of Zacharias the priest, that in Jesus Christ God has visited man and wrought redemption for him. The incarnation and the cross, the resurrection and reign, the gift of the Holy Spirit and all the glorious ministry of Christ proclaim the value of man in the sight of God. It is a great. thing to create and uphold worlds and: alaxies of worlds by wisdom and power, it: isa greater thing to redeem the souls of men: in love by sacrifice. The cross has something to say concerning what man is, as well as the stars.
There is then affinity between man and. God. Man hungers for God, God visits man. Now and again a big word is hurled at us, which the foes of our Christian faith seem to regard as a deadly weapon, deadly prmerehion. Let us not be afraid of it, that is to our faith; the word is anthro-
ig as it is. Its meaning is this, that we Christians hold that God has human at~ tributes. We frankly acknowledge, that: apart from all question of form, we believer ina personal, a Living God; one in whom there are the qualities, only without imperfection, which are essential to what is meant by personality, as Consciousness,, Intelligence, Volition. "We are -the offspring of God." Made of the dust, we: are allied to God. The ultimate link its the chain of our descent is not man butt The words of the evangelist are these, " Which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God."
If we are overwhelmed with the thought of our littleness, our insignificance, is it not in part because we confound bigness: with greatness, and unthinkingly regard magnitude as the test of value? A jewell found upon a mountain side, may be worth more than the whole mass of the mountain in which it lay embedded. The own of an estate who is also a esteem his son more than his The nursery in the palace o cing is usually by no means the larger, t or the finest room, but it is the him, for his children are there. [s it not more than a fancy that this lift Jo world may be dearer to God than ji worlds besides, since it is the nursery "of His sons and daughters? It is nowhere said that God loves the universe; it is said that He loves man.
is ant with practical suggestions. with our consciousness, an? is a view which This twofold view of 2.0n harmonises
Man, though a child of the dust, is an heir of glory; helpless and weak, he is immort arm, he is a li ttle lower than God; inhabiting the world, he reaches out beyond all worlds; sinner, he is redeemed with the blood of Christ.' I may only detain you Tonger while I put to you a single westion. Shall we, knowing what we lo of ourselves, expend our chief thought and effort in ig the sensuous and sensual, to the neglect of the spiritual
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.